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Reviews
The Outer Limits: The Guests (1964)
This is the outstanding Outer Limits episode
This is the one that has invaded my dreams ever since it was first on, fifty-nine years ago! The characters are perfect: the older, bickering couple, the has-been actress straight out of Sunset Boulevard, the sincere ingenue in 19th-centuery dress, the drifter who is, at heart, a good person. He and the ingenue immediately fall for each other. I knew the ingenue could not leave because her years would catch up to her once she stepped outside the garden gate. Nevertheless, she went out of love so that the drifter, who could not have left without her, has a chance at a real life.
The creature had never before encountered love, yet he created the conditions for the ingenue and the drifter to fall in love.
Chopped: All-American Showdown: East (2023)
Define East
Just somewhat mystified that a contest that was supposed to recognize the Northeast had TWO people from Pennsylvania, one from New York, one from Washington, DC., and NOBODY from all of New England. I guess Boston, with its many first-class chefs, is not on the East Coast. Also, if nobody in Boston was qualified for this episode, what about the great chefs all over New England.
I was so disgusted that I couldn't even watch what the contestants were cooking. If you are going to choose someone to represent a whole area of the country, at least start with a representative sample. I, for one, will not watch the finale of the so-called All-American Showdown, because it isn't.
Carrot Cake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (2023)
Worst of the series
I loved the previous Murder She Baked/Hannah Swenson TV movies. Not this time. First, how typically Hallmark to wipe previous family members from existence, in this case dropping in a new one as if she had been there all along. I guess this happened in the first movie called "Hannah Swenson Mysteries" but for me it did not hit home at the time.
How about, "Michele, it's so great to have you home after you were away so long getting your college degrees." Or, "Hey, I hear from Andrea last night. She and Bill are settling into their new life in New Hampshire. Bill loves his Deputy Police Chief job." It's just like Hallmark 's Good Witch series that, by the unwatchable final season had dropped, by my count, 4 or 5 family members. Does Hallmark think everyone is a newcomer to a series that had been on for many years?
I was also very disappointed in Hannah's behavior. In her obsession with playing detective, she wass oblivious to the position she put Mike in with both his professional ethics and his place in the police department's hierarchy. The only reason I rated this as high as a "5" was in the probably vane hope that Hallmark will clear up these issues in the future.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
Totally charming
When I was in grade school, I read this book not long after it was published in 1958 and reread it many times, but it has been a while since I did so. I had forgotten many of the plot details. This film brought back the warmth and joy of the book as well as the plot. It is refreshing to see a movie about an older character and someone who is rewarded for being a kind person.
I am a fan of several of the actors: Leslie Manville for Phantom Thread, Alba Baptista for Warrior Nun, and Jason Isaacs for Harry Potter, of course, but for me even more so for the dashing villain he played on Star Trek: Discovery. They all were great in Mrs. Harris. Leslie Manville, especially, exudes kindness and warmth. Thank you, all, for bringing back a wonderful memory.
Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend (2022)
Stomach still empty
Mark Dacascos should modify his "with an open heart and an empty stomach" line because he does not get to join the judges tasting the food. Self-important, condescending Alton Brown has taken his place at the table. Mark goes home still hungry.
Top Chef Kristen Kish, herself a brilliant chef, should have taken over the floor-reporter role rather than being a co-host.
I understand that Nilou Motamed is a famous food critic but she adds nothing.
Andrew Zimmern is, as always, a gem.
Julia: Foie Gras (2022)
Julia and women's rights
Twice in this episode, Julia Child has to deal with the role of women in the 1960's. In general, at the time, once an occupation commanded a good salary, it was male only. The exceptions were the "female ghetto" occupations: mother, nurse, teacher, secretary. In most instances, women were not even allowed to to apply for other kinds of jobs.
First, she encounters chef Andre Soltner at the New York French restaurant Lutece. At the time, home cooking was considered the province of women while restaurant cooking was in the domain of men. He tells Julia to remember that professional cooking can only be dome by men.
Next she meets Betty Friedan, one of the founders of women's liberation, who was fighting to give women an equal place. A clueless viewer reviewed this episode and called Betty Friedan a Marxist. She was not. (Marx wanted to replace private ownership with cooperative ownership to eliminate social classes.)
If you are a woman with a professional job today, you have Betty Friedan to thank. However, in this episode she wrongly thinks The French Chef was doing its part to keep women in their place, i.e. The kitchen.
Both Soltner and Friedan were wrong. Julia Child was sharing her love of French cuisine with the world. Both men and women watched her show, cooked her recipes, and ventured beyond what they knew. The French Chef made public TV popular and created the cooking show genre.
Julia (2022)
Brings me back to the 60s
This series is right on target portraying Julia Child. Sarah Lancashire does a wonderful job. In the very first episode, she has to deal with the onset of menopause. Sarah showed in a very subtle way Julia's regret for never having had, and now becoming unable to have, a baby. Her regret hits home when she later runs into a friend who has had a baby.
The Alice Naman character stands in for an actual assistant producer at WGBH. She represents how women in the early 60s, regardless of race or ethnicity or education, were dismissed by the men they worked with, if they could get a job at all outside traditionally, and subservient, female occupations. Even by the end of the decade, job listings were separated by gender and women were not allowed to apply for jobs whose qualifications they met.
We learn how Russell Morash initially did not think something like a cooking show met the purpose of educational TV. He later went on to produce not only many years of The French Chef but also This Old House and Victory Garden, equally non-academic. His wife, Marian Morash, begins as a typical American housewife of her time, thinking tuna casserole was great food. She went on to give her own cooking lessons featuring home-grown produce on Victory Garden. We can only imagine how much Julia inspired her.
Good Sam (2022)
Disappointing
Between Harry Potter and Star Trek: Discovery, I'm a huge fan of Jason Isaacs, but this show is too stupid to watch. A father and daughter should never be in the position of supervising each other, and then they threw the mother into the nepotism mix.
Also, people don't just wake up from comas like they just finished a long nap. It's a very long process.
Worst Cooks in America (2010)
Childish
This show used to get its humor from the contestants' lack of cooking skills and knowledge. In recent years it has descended into a slapstick comedy that resorts to physical comedy challenges that are demeaning to the contestants. Even the dignified Cliff Crooks can't rescue this show.
One Royal Holiday (2020)
Boy, did they take a wrong turn
The actors in this movie were very charming. However, I still can't figure out how the royal family left an event in Boston and tried to get to Boston's airport, Logan, in the northern part of the city by way of a road leading to Connecticut, heading west and south. They should have been a relatively quick tunnel or bridge trip from the airport and would had to make serious wrong turn. It's typical of Hallmark's complete lack of research. Still, I enjoyed the performances.
Dune: Part One (2021)
Stunning
I watched this at home on October 21 because I couldn't wait. Then I went to see it in Imax on the 23rd. I'm glad I did both and I think everyone should see this on the big screen.
The sets and costumes were beyond my expectations. The feudal society didn't make Villeneuve use cliched Renaissance images like those in the 1984 film or Game of Thrones. This film does something new, a true vision of the year 10191. In particular, Villeneuve captured the Bedouin flavor of the book, my all-time favorite. Some of the technology in the book came alive for the first time: personal shields, the Baron's suspensor suit, and in particular the ornithopters, which I had previously imagined as helicopters shaped like birds.
One of my issues with the 1984 film was always the Toto score. It was nice as a generic film score, but had nothing to do with Dune. The Hans Zimmer score in the new film did not have any themes you could hum, but supported the story and its setting so much better.
Some quibbles: The biggest is that in a few places the acting was flat and unemotional. The one person whose acting truly showed her character's feelings was Rebecca Ferguson. Timothy Chalamet does not look like red-headed Paul Atreides from the book. The closest any film adaptation has come was the Alec Newman from the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries. The early part of the film was misleading about the importance of the spice melange. The film made the spice sound like a mere navigation aid, much different from giving Spacing Guild navigators the ability to fold the space between two planets, which is the equivalent of creating a wormhole. Finally, I had been hoping this first film would include Paul and Jessica being taken to Sietch Tabr and Paul getting his new name, Muad Dib. That would be a better demonstration of the death of Paul Atreides and the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach.
I am now eagerly awaiting part 2.
Our Kind of People (2021)
Feels like the 80's
Regardless of the color of the cast, all the back-stabbing made me feel like I was watching something from the late 70's or early 80's, like Dallas or Dynasty. I've always liked Joe Morton and thought Yaya Dacosta was good on Chicago Med. They deserve better.
By the way, writers, at least do your research. Somebody was asked a character she had lived in Boston and she answered, "The East Side." There's no such neighborhood. The closest name is the traditionally Italian "East Boston."
Lucifer: Partners 'Til the End (2021)
Mixed feelings
I knew throughout season 6 that Amenadiel would become God, not Lucifer. However, I found Lucifer becoming hell's psychotherapist a bit disappointing. Season 5 was so much better and should have been the series finale.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue (2020)
This is Star Wars
From the moment the unknown Jedi knight appears, vanquishing all the dark warriors with his lightsaber and the Force, this is truly Star Wars. It puts all the prequel and sequel movies to shame. My heart leapt with joy when Luke revealed himself and from that point on I was in tears. He even brought R2 with him! Din's farewell to Gorgu was another shining moment. I have rewatched this ending several times and felt tears well up each time. This set a standard for all future Star Wars movies and TV series.
Capital One College Bowl (2021)
Don't pick schools based on their football teams
It seems that schools were chosen to participate based on the prestige of their football teams and not their academic standing. Consequently, many of the questions asked are insulting to the viewer. Peyton Manning is OK.
Cooper Manning doesn't add much. Oh, how I miss the original G. E. College Bowl.
Good Witch (2015)
Hey George, where's your wife, Gwen?
Do the writers of this sappy show think viewers who have been watching since the "The Good Witch" movies have forgotten all the characters? I seem to recall George falling for Gwen and eventually getting married to her. Now that he's romancing another lady, where did he hide Gwen's body? In his garden?
Meanwhile, Cassie and Sam seem to have shed their biological and step children, Grace, Nick, Laurie, and Brendan. They conveniently no longer seem to exist.
Meanwhile, the plots keep getting sappier. You used to count on Martha, Abigail, and later Sam's ex-wife to spice things up with a little conflict.
I think my DVR is going to find something better to do on Sunday evenings.
I Care a Lot (2020)
At what age does a person need guardianship?
Absolutely the most stupid thing in this movie was the ages of the people whom a judge committed to this swindler's supervision. One victim was 69, another was 70. In that age group the worst thing that happens to the majority of people is aching joints. They still have full mental acuity. Maybe some people are incapable of caring for themselves physically when they reach 80 and even then they are mentally sound. Most take a decade longer than that. In this film, the people who needed guardianship the most were the judge and the writers.